I think it will take techniques like those described at
http://www.taoofdemocracy.com/
to both increase both the quantity and quality of democracy.
Tom Atlee, author of Tao of Democracy, is a fan of the National
Initiative for Democracy I work on (http://vote.org) which he mentions
on page 177. The National Initiative was written by former U.S.
Senator Mike Gravel, remembered for reading the Pentagon Papers into
the Federal Register, and filibustering until the the Armed Services
Committee agreed to wind down the draft, both in 1971.
The CU law school is having its 2006-7 conference on initiatives. A CO
ballot initiative to improve the initiative process will likely be on
the 2008 ballot...